3 VoIP Today Most people know now that VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and in simpler terms - phone calls over the internet rather than a standard phone line. While the internet is packed with information about consumer VoIP, for example Skype, it is far more complicated to find good information about business VoIP PBX solutions which differs significantly in terms of features, benefits and capacity. Many small and midsized businesses use the flexibility that VoIP and IP phone systems offer to thrive in this challenging economy CornerStone, 2010 Researched conducted in 2012 by Ofcom proves that awareness of VoIP in the UK has increased drastically over the last four years and although there is significantly more data surrounding consumer VoIP, without any doubt, the adoption of business VoIP has been increasing substantially, mainly due to its cost efficiency and the flexibility it delivers. This guide has been created for businesses as organisations that are looking to adopt innovative and smart IT solutions to improve flexibility, increase productivity and enhance communication without draining budgets. This guide gives some answers about VoIP, particularly for those who rely on traditional telephony and use the phone as a way of driving business. What is Hosted VoIP? VoIP can be used on multiple devices to make and receive calls, from a traditional desktop handset to a full range of softphones and applications that support all sorts of operating systems including Windows, Apple and Android. What does that mean for your business? That you can turn almost any device into your office phone and pay just one phone bill. It also allows you to make and route incoming calls to users and groups flexibly anywhere and at any time. With VoIP, the chances of missing that important call while you are not in the office are greatly reduced! Hosted VoIP provides a huge range of features that will benefit your business. In this guide, we would like to take a look at some of the most important ones. A Hosted VoIP PBX is a cloud based business phone solution that costs less to adopt and can help reduce phone bills by up to 40%. A hosted PBX can also make any business and organisation s workforce more flexible and mobile by offering intuitive features that support todays increasing business mobility requirements. 3 Doc V1.0 Jan 2014

4 How does Hosted VoIP work? Is Hosted VoIP Reliable? A Hosted VoIP PBX is a complete business phone system available for a low monthly fee, continuously developed without you having to keep upgrading your phone system. There are all sorts of Hosted VoIP packages for multiple VoIP users (Multi User VoIP) which can be tailored around your particular business requirements. Like most business, you are probably too busy to calculate how much VoIP can save you but let us tell you that some businesses have experienced up to 60% in monthly savings by switching from a traditional phone facility, as it reduces your phone bills, cuts line rental costs, typically has a far lower cost of entry than a traditional on premise business phone system as well as the costs of maintenance and support. The short answer here is yes. Although it will vary from provider to provider, VoIP has made huge strides forward in reliability and security over the last few years and in comparison to traditional fixed line telephony, it is now as reliable with good planning around your actual connectivity. These days you should expect a quality VoIP service to be at least 99% as reliable as fixed line services. While choosing the right provider, be very careful and make sure that at minimum, it is hosted in the UK datacenters which are ISO certified. Reading client reviews or even asking to speak to an existing customer will help you to understand the product itself more and provide you with the relevant feedback about the VoIP provider. The Hosted PBX service is delivered from the Cloud bringing your team together, connecting multiple offices and home workers with free internal calls all that allowing you to project the professional business image your customers expect. 4

5 How can Hosted VoIP help my business? Due to its flexible nature, as any other cloud based solution, VoIP can support a number of your business challenges with communications. Here are a couple of typical scenarios and how a hosted PBX can be a remedy. Creating flexible Communications The challenge Many modern businesses have been rapidly adopting mobile technology, for example tablets and smartphones, to enable their employees remote working, boosting at the same time the popularity of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). allows the users who are out of the office to place calls which originate from the same number it would from their desktop handset. This is especially useful feature for modern businesses that may even operate from home or a temporary office. Ultimately, you could potentially make any device part of the network with all calls made within the business technically free* depending on the provider. *Calls made using SIP applications over 3G/4G mobile networks may incur call or data package costs from the network, please check with your service provider. In any business, there are always some employees who travel often and having the ability to stay connected to the business easily and cost effectively is critical. There might also be employees who work from home and just need to be able to receive and make business calls seamlessly as part of the company network. For many businesses and organisations out there, it is remote working that actually brings in the revenue. The truth is that any business, some more than others, relies on telephony as primary form of communication and they need a solid system in place that meets their requirements. Hosted VoIP makes the perfect partner for Hosted Exchange to help complete the mobile communications cycle while on the move all synced on multiple devices. Most VoIP providers and IP-PBX software packages deliver a much more robust feature set than traditional phone providers do The solution With Hosted VoIP, your team can be connected to the company phone system wherever they are, from multiple devices, making and receiving calls as they would on their desktop phone. This can be achieved with the aid of a softphone or downloadable application being installed onto a smartphone, tablet, PC or laptop, essentially turning it into another extension on your network. This PC World 5

6 Ensuring Cost Efficient Scalability The challenge A number of businesses might face the same challenge when planning strategy for future growth - replacing the current phone system and having it up to date to constantly improve communication flow and its quality. The real challenge is making sure it fits its purpose, particularly in being flexible to business change, for example moving premises or increasing the number of users. That is not only a tough ask for an on premise system but it is often a costly one too. What happens if you open a new office, have home or mobile workers? Key features of VoIP with Cloud4 Computers: Keep your number Get your voic in your inbox Create voice menus Set up call queues Manage your voic Pick up other extension The solution On premise phone systems tend to be purchased based on the current requirement with a little planning for future growth. However, few are as rapidly and cost effectively scalable as hosted system, under which it is easy to simply spin up a new extension, and configure a handset for a new user, and put it on a desk. If the user is remote, simply ship it to them ready to plug in where they are are and work. The handset instantly becomes part of the network with calls between multiple offices and home locations all free. With a hosted phone system, you can easily scale the system to the ever changing needs of the business, and manage everything centrally via the online control portal. 6

7 Some Key features of Hosted Voip If you have ever wondered how some of your competitors can afford such sophisticated phone systems, the answer may well be that they discovered a Hosted PBX. Each provider will offer different features and benefits of Hosted VoIP but at Cloud4, we want to make sure that VoIP gives both your business and your customers all the extras you might expect from a large dedicated company switchboard. Keep your number Using a Hosted PBX does not mean losing the old telephone number. It is a simple as transferring the existing number in as little as 10 working days, with a simple process and a cost of just 25 (excluding VAT) per number. Our team sets everything up, checks that everything is in order and seamlessly moves you to a Hosted PBX service. Get your voic in your Inbox Never miss those important messages even on the move with Voic . Set your system to automatically forward all your voic s directly to your inbox so you can listen to them instantly on your PC, Laptop, smartphone or tablet devices wherever you are. Create voice menus Efficient call routing is simple using the Hosted PBX voice menu options. A facility for directing customers efficiently to the team or person they need, for example asking callers to press 1 for sales, gives the experience of professionalism and simply means that callers do not have to be transferred 2-3 or more times to reach the right department. Management is all via the Hosted PBX web interface so setup is extremely straightforward. Set up call queues Invaluable for sales departments, support or customer services teams, call queues hold your customers in call order, with calls passed to your agents as they become free. Callers hear music as they are holding and you also have the ability to set up advanced options such as breaking out of the queue and informing callers of their position. Manage your voic Making sure that messages do not get lost is a critical issue for any business. The hosted PBX allows callers to leave messages at individual extensions. You can then manage and listen to it online, on your desktop phone or even via your inbox by . Pick up other extensions If someone in the office spotted another ringing extension that needs answering, it is easy to pick up the call from another phone. Re-route calls by time of day There might be different priorities at different times of day in your business or some staff members may only be available at certain times. Re-routing calls is easy to achieve using the Hosted PBX web control panel and by adjusting settings in real time, whenever the requirements change. These are just main characteristics and benefits of Business VoIP. There are a lot more value added features you gain with a hosted VoIP solution to help you present that professional image and improve communication flexibility; features that would cost extra with many traditional phone systems but are included by a good Hosted VoIP provider. 7

8 Summary By using the right provider who can tailor a service that suits your business, hosted VoIP will deliver a quality, reliable, scalable and cost effective business phone solution to your business, school or charity. When you weigh up traditional telephony vs VoIP, currently the advantages of moving to a VoIP system by far outweigh those for staying on an ISDN / PSTN service. Hosted VoIP is simple to adopt and some providers will even fully pre-configure your system and handsets for you, ready to plug in and start using quickly. Used in conjunction with other online services such as Hosted Exchange for example, VoIP solution will give you a complete hosted communications solution that will save you money and improve your business. They also give all the flexibility to make your business more mobile and responsive to the changes it needs to adapt to sooner rather than later. Cloud4 Computers is a leading provider of Cloud Computing, Business Mobility and IT Solutions in the UK and abroad since With over 15 years of technical and commercial experience, our main focus is to deliver reliable and effective Cloud Solutions to any business, charity or public sector organisation. Realising that no business or organisation is the same, Cloud4 Computers offers unique solutions fitting your specific needs and requirements along with high level support. Contact a team member today to get more information about Cloud Solutions and determine which Cloud Service would best fit your needs and requirements Helpline: Connect with us on: 8 Doc V1.0 Jan 2014

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